Benny felt himself lying again but this time, he felt covered in soft bedding and blankets. And something thick around his head

He slowly opened his eyes.

His vision was all cloudy again. It seems the eye drops had already worn off. But he was initially surprised that he couldn’t see out of his left eye again. Only to find that there were thick bandages covering his left eye.

Although his foggy vision was as bad as ever, he could guess that he was lying in some kind of bed. He could make out it was some kind of room. There were windows on his right side that someone had left open. Warm light bathed him along with a cool breeze wafting into the room.

With a groan, Benny tried to sit up but found his muscles stiff. Emrys did say he was in a coma for about a week. Was he suffering from slight muscle atrophy because he had been in a week-long coma?

All of a sudden, he heard loud voices. There was a quick scraping of a chair beside him and a loud clattering as though the chair feel backward and onto the floor.

“B-Benny?!”

“Benny!”

“Benny-iho!”

At the sound of those voices, Benny turned his gaze on his left and saw three foggy figures. The one nearest to him was clad in red. Suddenly, he saw a red Haze…or rather a red Aura had appeared over one of the person.

Benny knew at once it was Tenryu.

“Ten…ryu?”

Benny was surprised at the sound of his voice. And how dry and parched his throat was!

“He’s awake! Auntie! He’s awake!”

“Benny-iho… Oh, thank heavens, you’re finally awake!”

From the sound of those voices, it must be Flare and Aunt Magma.

“BEEENNNNYYY!!!!”

And just like that he was suddenly hugged (or rather body-tackled) back to the bed.

“Gufuh~!”

“You’re awake! Blistering Blazes, you’re finally awake!!!”

“Can’t…brea…th…” Benny gasped for air from Tenryu’s bear hug and his parched throat.

“Tenryu-iho, get off him!”

“You idiotic brother, he’s just woken up so don’t crush him!”

“Ah! Blast it…Sorry!”

Tenryu finally let’s go of him. With great effort Benny finally managed to sit up though he swayed in dizziness. It was the same feeling of waking up after a long dream.

Benny heard a door opened and he saw a person enveloped with a green Aura entered the room.

“W-What’s going on here?”

“Nia look! He’s awake!”

Benny soon heard a loud gasp and a cry of joy, “BENJAMIN!”

And just like that, he saw a cloudy mass of strawberry pink rushing towards him and he was pulled into another tight embrace.

“I was so worried…” she mumbles.

“…N….ia…a?”

“Take your time, Nia. We know you’ve been worried about him.” says Flare.

“What the blitz? And you said I shouldn’t do things like that!”

“That’s because you tackled him, you idiot.”

BONK*

“OW!”

It would seem that Flare had smacked her brother on the head.

“I…ah…” Benny struggled to speak but his throat seared so painfully that he clutched at it.

Thankfully, Aunt Magma was able to catch on, “I think he’s thirsty. Flare-iha, please get him some water to drink from the basket.”

GROWL*

Benny blushed in embarrassment, I’m hungry? But I thought I just ate…ah, no, no… that was just in a dream…

“…Something to eat as well. He hasn’t eaten in days.”

“I’m on it!”

Flare was quick to bring him a drink of water and something in a plate bout couldn’t make out what was in it. Benny drank the water in big gulps. When he was finished he felt his throat’s fire had cooled down.

“Ah, thanks…that really hits the spot. I thought my throat was going to burn up…”

“Here’re some sandwiches for you.”

Benny simply stared through his foggy vision, “Thanks. But um, I can’t see where they are.”

“N-No way…C-could it be you’ve become blind?!” Tenryu suddenly shouts in panic.

“Calm down, Tenryu. Remember that Benjamin has bad vision? The Vision Restorer Drops had obviously worn off. I’ll go get them for you.”

Nia then helped in applying the drops into his remaining eye. After the intense burning sensation, soon enough, he could see clearly once more.

I’d much rather have my glasses back though. Benny thought to himself as he tried to bear the sting once more.

As his vision returned, he saw he was lying inside a hospital room. But what really stunned him was the sight of their gaunt and haggard faces. They all looked like they hadn’t had a decent wink of sleep in a while. But they all had the expression of great relief.

“W-What happened to you guys? You look terrible!”

Flare frowned at him, “Well, that’s a nice thing to say to people who’ve been worried about you!”

“No, I don’t mean it that way! It’s just…”

“We’ve been taking turns watching over you while you were unconscious. Nia especially, as soon as she herself recovered she’s been to monitoring your condition.”

Benny looked at Nia who for some reason was beet red.

“A-Anyway, now that you’re up, I have to do a few check-ups.”

“Eh?”

“I’m sorry but it’s the standard procedure. I’ll be quick.”

Benny had momentarily forgotten that Nia was a Remedician.

Nia quickly did what Benny recognized were routine medical checks like blood pressure monitoring and temperature reading though she was using a different array of Magical Tools rather than a usual stethoscope and thermometer. She also asked him some follow up questions.

“Do you feel any dizziness?” (Maybe a little, since I just woke up)

“Do you feel any discomfort anywhere?” (Yes. My muscles feel all stiff. My throat is still a little scratchy though.)

“How does area around your left eye feel?” (That part feels a little numb but I don’t feel pain from it anymore.)

Nia nodded, “Well, all vitals have checked out and they’re perfectly normal. We’ve cleaned the wound on your eye just recently but we’ll have to check it out again. For now, you just need to rest.”

Benny wasn’t sure how the area around his left eye was right now. Emrys had said he had healed his eye but he wasn’t sure as that was just in a dream. Also he wasn’t just about to rip off the bandages and possibly hurt himself even more. The very least he wasn’t feeling pain anymore.

“I’m grateful for that. But, Nia are you okay? You look a little sick.”

Nia flinched, “I’m fine…Benjamin…”

“Are you sure? You’re a little flushed for some reason.”

Why is she looking away? And why was she pink for some reason?

“I’m fine, thank you for your concern. But it’s you we’ve been worried about.”

“You’ve really worried us, Benny­-iho. For seven days, you didn’t show any signs of waking up…and…” Aunt Magma looked like she was about to cry. Flare nods in agreement.

Okay, looks like I really created a scene out of drama series here. Benny thought.

“I’m really sorry, everyone. I didn’t mean to worry you all.” Benny bowed his head down in shame.

“No, no, Benny-iho. We should be the ones apologizing as well as thanking you. Nia and Tenryu told us how you strained yourself too far to save everyone and even received that horrible injury was because you shielded Tenryu. For that alone, we couldn’t possibly thank you enough for that.”

This was getting too dramatic and embarrassing for me.

GRRRROOOOOWWWLLL*

Benny’s stomach began growling again. Thankfully, this was just the distraction he needed and he quickly took his attention towards the sandwiches.

As he ate, everyone gave him an update of what had happened since he passed out.

From what Benny heard, it took more than a whole hour before the Royal Knights and Adventurer’s Association Officials came to the scene after Tenryu had destroyed the Artificial Demon.

Talk about poor response time. Benny thought in criticism.

By then, Nia managed to recover by drinking a ready-made potion of Manna Recovery and another for Fatigue Recovery. When Benny questioned why she hadn’t pulled those out earlier she was about to but Benny had performed the Manna Transference Spell so there was no need.

She first treated Benny who was unconscious and suffering from severe blood loss. After giving him some emergency treatment she helped Tenryu by having him drink the remaining Recovery potions she had. It was only around that time when the authorities had finally broke through the debris and arrived on scene.

Benny had been brought to this place: the City Healing Facility (The other world version for the “Hospital”) where he received full treatment. Apart from the physical wounds, he had severely depleted his Manna to the point that he was in the borderline between life and death. He had to be constantly fed with the Manna Recovery Potion round the clock.

Although Nia’s and Tenryu’s Manna reserves were drained considerably it wasn’t nowhere as bad as Benny’s situation. All they had were some minor wounds and scratches they were soon back to full health. A couple of days after the incident they were debriefed about what had transpired at the Adventurer’s Association 7th District Branch Office.

Mr. Venditore had some long discussions with the authorities as he was the principal victim here. As for the main perpetrators, the Grave Brothers were apprehended and were sent to be trialed for their crime along with many other crimes they’ve committed. From how things were going they were going straight to Tartaros Prison.

Although there were capable Remedicians in the City Healing Facility, as soon as she was able to, Nia managed the remainder of Benny’s treatment. It turns out she is a very well-respected Resident Healer in the Healing Facility. It took a full three more days before Benny was deemed out of dangers and two days more for him to wake up. A grand total of one whole week had passed.

“In the end, it was all thanks to your plan that we managed to defeat that thing.” says Nia.

“But I’ve really caused a lot of worry for everyone in the process…I’m really sorry…”Benny bows his head in apology.

“Benny-iho, don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“Yeah, in fact, you’re a hero!” pipes Flare.

“What? Eh? Me a…?” mumbles Benny incoherently while shaking his hands in front of him.

But then Nia took his hand into her own and pats it to calm him down. Which does cause him to stop but it doesn’t calm him down. In fact, it caused his cheeks to flare up.

“Benjamin, it was your plan that defeated that thing. It was you who captured those good-for-nothing thieves and brought them to justice. It was you who save all of us and got us out of there alive. You willingly put yourself in the line…and this happened.”

She lightly brushed her other hand over his left bandaged eye.

Benny blushed profusely being told of his actions which sounded like some protagonist of one of his light novels…and probably because Nia caressed his face like that. As he tried to look away, from the corner of his right eye Benny saw Tenryu hung his head down miserably. All of a sudden, Benny’s Aura Sight activated without him realizing it and he saw Tenryu’s Aura wafted off him again. There was a strange dark tint to the usually bright red Aura that flashed at his sight right now.

What’s with that Aura? What’s wrong with Tenryu?

Benny’s attention was still on Tenryu when Aunt Magma suddenly spoke to him.

“Well, Benny-iho we have a general idea of what happened. But we would like you to still explain your side of the story. Of course, it doesn’t have to be now but I would like to hear your side of the story when you are ready.”

“But didn’t Tenryu and Nia already explain what really happened. I can’t add anymore than that.”

“I would still like hear your version of things. From what I heard, it would seem you showed quite a talent in Magic.”

“Yeah, like how you invented Flight and Transposition! Those are two of the Impossible 13, right?” asks Flare with excitement lighting up her tired face.

“Eh? How did you know about that?”

It was Nia who explained to him. “You did use Transposition right in front of them, you know? Plus Bronson and Eldon sort of blabbed about it.”

“Ah…” Benny sighed. “So that means the secret’s out.”

Flare sudden approached him with eyes shining in anticipation (it sort of scared him.) “C’mon! Tell us how you did it! And while you’re at it, tell us all the amazing Magic you’ve used! Tenryu says you even did Magic without a Magic Tool! How did you do all that? Are you really a novice to all this?! Come on! Tell me!”

Aunt Magma pulled her back, “Okay, Flare-iha. You’re getting too close for comfort for Benny-iho and he still needs to rest. He can tell you all about it later.”

“Eh~ But Auntie, I want to know that Magic for flying!”

So that’s what she wanted? I guess anyone would like to experience that, huh? Benny thought in amusement.

“I admit I too want to know all that but Benny-iho needs to recuperate. We should go and inform the Healer Station. Nia, you don’t mind if we leave him in your care.”

Nia nodded and with that Aunt Magma takes a protesting Flare with her out of the room.

And now it was only just the three of them.

“Does anybody else know about this?” Benny asks Nia.

“Mr. Venditore ordered those two guards to hold their tongues. Apart from them and Sylvia, only Aunt Magma and Flare knows. Well, there’s those Grave Brothers but no one would believe a couple of thieves, so I wouldn’t worry. The agreement was that there’s enough of the commotion without bringing something like the invention of two of the Impossible 13 Concepts Magic to light.”

“That’s a relief.”

Benny took another bite of the sandwich when something glinted from the corner of his eye and caught his attention. He looked at it and saw it was the staff Emrys had given him, propped on the corner.

“Ah, my staff…”

“So that staff really is yours?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

He opened his hand towards it and the staff quickly flew straight into his grip. He felt warmth emanating from it as though it was happy to be reunited with its owner.

Nia flinched as they saw the staff suddenly moved on its own. But she didn’t seem to question it anymore.

“Where exactly did you get that?” Nia looked at the staff, “Mr. Venditore told us that it wasn’t one of his products so-”

“Actually it’s mine. It was a gift from a friend. During that battle in the shop, I just remembered I had that on me in storage. Silly me! I should’ve pulled that out earlier.”

Benny quickly thought of that lie. In truth, he wasn’t sure how he would explain that he got a magical tool from a spiritual guardian. He doubted that they will understand so easily.

“You had a Magical Tool all this time and you forgot about it?” says Nia incredulously.

“It’s complicated. I had a lot on my mind recently.”

“But still, it must be a very powerful Magic Tool. Your friend must’ve been known a very powerful Magic Crafter or is he one himself?”

“He was a tad eccentric if you ask me…”

I forgot to thank Emrys for this…I’ll do it next time he pops up. Benny thought as held the staff aloft. Still I wish this thing isn’t so long-

No sooner he had thought that, the staff glowed and shortened to the size of a cane!

“What the-” yelped Benny. I didn’t know it could do that?

Was something he was about to say but was glad he didn’t because Nia suddenly interjected.

“Wow! So it can be resized to fit your preference? So it has Reshaping Magic! Is that how you were able to easily store it?”

“Err…yeah, I guess…”

Benny looked at the shortened staff in his hand. It was has a simpler design in this form. So it can shrink just like that, huh? Maybe it change into something more portable to carry like a ring or a-

Once again, the staff reacted once more with a glow and changed into a golden signet ring on his right hand.

Blistering Blazes? It really changed into a ring?! Benny thought.

The ring had a large, smooth oval crystal. He could see that behind the transparent stone was an engraving of a crest in the shape of the top part of his staff. Benny could also see a small star similar to the one on his Spellbook.

Nia’s eye widened as she stared at the ring that was a staff and cane previously. Benny experimented a few times and interchanged the ring into its staff version then to a cane and vice versa.

“Benjamin, I think you should stop because it’s making me dizzy. Plus you shouldn’t over exert yourself.”

“Ah! Sorry about that.” Benny stopped and made the staff into its ring form. “Speaking of which shouldn’t you guys rest as well? From the looks of it, you’ve pulled several all nighters.”

“As a Remedician, it’s not anything new. I do regret that I don’t keep my looks up.”

Nia smoothened out her hair. Benny just noticed that she wasn’t wearing her apron and cloak which usually covers up her upper body up to her neck. Nia had a slender neck that accentuated her heart-shaped face. Also, despite her petite physique she had a rather ample sized chest area which Benny found quite nice.

UWAAAH!!! WHAT THE BLITZ AM I THINKING?!! Benny thought in panic when he realized he was thinking perverted thoughts. He didn’t notice that he was turning red. Benny shook his head as though to shake those thought out of his head.

“Benjamin?! What’s wrong? Is your head in pain?”

“Huh? What? I wasn’t thinking anything weird about you!”

Benny soon realized she was asking a different question and he said something else very differently.

Nia looked at him with a rather stiff expression.

“Well, forgive me if I look weird Benjamin? But I barely had time to keep up my looks-”

Benny quickly tries to backtrack, “No, no, that’s not what I meant. I mean you look really beautiful-ah!” Benny clamped his mouth.

UWAAAH!!! WHY DID I SAY THAT?!!! Benny mentally screamed.

“Eh? Beautiful…I…” Nia looked away bashfully while blushing profusely.

Benny wanted to pick up a sword and run himself with it. He was so embarrassed that he wanted to die already.

Nia, on her part, she also found it embarrassing to hear that. She wasn’t someone who thought she herself was really pretty though she does try her best to maintain a neat and clean appearance simply because it is very important for a Remedician to do (and because she was obviously a woman who valued sanitation and cleanliness). She believes she’s just generally has an okay appearance but she never really considered herself beautiful.

Hearing those words from Benny made her feel very happy.

Benny and Nia had an awkward air between them.

Finally, Nia broke the silence by coughing herself back to sense. “Well, thank you for your compliment and for your concern. But like I said, I’ve been too busy monitoring your condition. It’s you who we are worried about.”

Benny dropped his shoulders, “Oh yeah… was my fault for worrying everyone.”

“…my fault…”

Benny heard a slight mumble from Tenryu.

“Huh? Tenryu, did you say something?”

Tenryu continued mumbling as though he didn’t hear him.

Benny looked at him and saw the strange tinted red Aura. Just from looking at that…he already knew. He did not need to put two to two that there was something going on.

The whole time Tenryu just sat there silently as everyone talked. While he was glad Benny recovered but every time he looked at him and saw the bandaged left eye, he was left with a bitter pang in of guilt.

It’s my fault… All of…it’s my fault…

That was the train of thought that Tenryu has been thinking continuously for the past few days.

The very first friend he had ever made had suffered such terrible wounds. It was because of him that he was in that state. If he hadn’t rushed in, Benny wouldn’t have shielded him and wound up getting hurt. If it hadn’t wasted all the allocated Manna Benny wouldn’t have transferred more into him to the point of being life threatening.

All of it…it’s my fault…I’m…nothing but a disaster…

All at once, he remembered several nasty memories related to his recklessness. These were the memories that popped up when he was caught by the Grove of Dodona Spell.

“You’re a Swordsmage? Like the Dragon Sword King? Don’t make us laugh!”

“You aren’t even a fraction of how great the Sword Master is!”

“It’s always like this! You always mess up your jobs!”

“Why aren’t you paying attention to the instructions, you damned troublemaker?! You just keep doing things your own way!”

Tenryu clamped his hands to his ears as if to drown those voices but they seemed to grow louder and louder.

“A Wild Fire, indeed! He just burns everything in sight!”

“You’re nothing but a walking disaster! Who’d want you in their Party?!”

“We don’t want someone like you in our Guild! Get lost!”

“One of these days, you’ll hurt someone for real!”

“T-Tenryu… Hey, Tenryu?”

“Shut up…”

“Eh? What-”

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

Tenryu didn’t realize that he was hallucinating right in front of Benny and Nia.

Nia backed away, “T-Tenryu?! Calm down! What are you saying?”

But Benny understood what that was going on.

“Hmm…I see. No choice then.” Benny has the ring transform into a staff once more. “…Chained Lightning….”

A bolt of lightning shot from the staff and zapped Tenryu

“GUUAAGGHHHBZZZTTZTTZZTTTT!!!!!”

Tenryu collapsed to the floor completely frazzled.

After a few moments, Tenryu finally recovered and leapt back to his feet, looking back to his usual self, “W-Who the blitz did that?!”

“Sorry, but you were clearly having panic attack so I had to do that.”

“Panic…what?!”

Benny drew back his staff and transformed it back into ring form.

“Benjamin, you shouldn’t be using Magic so soon!”

“It’s alright. I gave Tenryu a little zap to snap him out of it.”

“That was “little”?”

“Well, maybe I added a little too much.” Benny turned his attention towards Tenryu, “Anyway Tenryu, what is going on with you?”

“You blasted me with lightning that’s what!”

“No, I meant before that. You were mumbling some things and when we tried to call out to you, you suddenly screamed like a madman.”

“Ah!” Tenryu quickly looked way, trying to avoid eye contact. “It’s nothing…”

“...”

“...”

There was a moment of silence passed between the two of them. Tenryu was probably not going to tell him what’s wrong. But Benny was familiar of an old technique to get him to talk.

“Yeah, even if you didn’t tell me it probably isn’t all that big.”

“What the blitz was that about?”

Benny shrugged. “I’m just saying! If there’s something really bothering you I assume you’d say it but I guess you didn’t so you don’t.”

“Hey, I happen to have a lot on my mind right now you know!”

“So there is something bothering you...”

Tenryu paused looking like he had just eaten a lemon, realizing he basically admitted he had something on his mind. Benny on his part thanked the science of Reverse Psychology.

“So what is it?”

Tenryu struggled to answer and finally mumbled, “It’s my fault…”

Nia stared at him shock. As though, she was witnessing something unbelievable.

“It’s my fault you were in that state. If I hadn’t charge in like the idiot like I was…”

“Yeah, you definitely had a hand on this.”

Benny’s words smacked Tenryu like hammer.

“Even though I made sure to clearly emphasize that I had a Spell that can paralyze that Artificial thing, you just rush in there to beat it up some more like a barbarian.”

Tenryu double backed at the word “barbarian.”

“Not to mention you wound up using up all the Manna I gave you! You were supposed to use it for the final blow but instead you went in wasted in big attacks that didn’t reach it!”

Tenryu kept suffering verbal attacks and was even looking like he was being pierced as though Benny’s words were a sword. Nia could only look at the situation with a dumbfounded expression.

“I had to allocate some more and practically drained myself to death! And I mean literally!”

Tenryu was shaking. He looked as though he were ready keel over already.

“Um, Benjamin?” says Nia, trying to caution him of the bomb his words were fueling. But Benny was aware of what he was doing.

“How is it that I’m the one who wound up getting the worse injuries in this situation? The very least you could-”

“BLAST IT! I GET IT ALREADY! I’M SORRY!!!” Tenryu yelled in frustration.

Nia looked at him in surprise, “Tenryu just…apologized?”

For all that time she’s known him, Tenryu was quite stubborn and prideful person who couldn’t admit his own mistakes and much less apologize.

“I’M SORRY I WAS A BIG IDIOT! I’M SORRY I MESSED UP THE PLAN! I’M SORRY FOR GETTING YOU HURT!!! I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! I’M SOOOORRRYYYY!!!!”

Tenryu fell on his knees and was breathing heavily.

“Err… It’s okay…”

Whoa seriously… It’s really weird seeing a tough guy breaking down like that. I can even hear some sniffling just now. Maybe I went too far.

To which Nia voiced the same.

“Benjamin…I think you went too far. Tenryu was blaming himself for all that happened. Look he’s all crying right now!”

“Blast it! I’m not crying! Sniff* I really thought…that you wouldn’t wake up again…sniff*” Tenryu said with tears streaking down.

“Tenryu, you really are crying, you know?”

“I said I’m not crying! Men don’t cry! Blistering Blazes I’m talking about something important here!” Tenryu vehemently shouts at him while rubbing his eyes.

“Okay, okay, I get it…”

Tenryu wiped the snot off his nose and “something” out of his eyes.

Yeah, he was obviously crying just now. Both Nia and Benny thought.

“I accept your apology. So it’s alright.”

Tenryu looked down on his feet, “No, no it’s not alright. Benny…If you don’t want to be friends anymore. I can understand. There’s no way you’d want to be anywhere near a guy like me.”

Both Benny and Nia looked at him, startled by Tenryu’s words.

“Huh? Where did that come from?”

Nia even looked stricken but held her silence.

“Look at what happened! Because of me…you nearly died from Manna Deprivation and you even lost your eye.”

“I don’t blame you for what happened to me. It was my own choice to put myself in the line. In fact, I’m sorry too for worrying all of you. I should’ve known better to risk myself…”

Tenryu looked up at him with a crazed, desperate look, “No. Don’t you see? This always happens! Every time I get involve with others I wound up causing even more trouble for them. What happened at Venditore’s was the worst! I nearly got you killed. I’m a walking disaster!”

Both Benny and Nia were startled to hear all that coming from Tenryu.

“This is why everyone avoids me… I cause nothing but trouble… You… You shouldn’t be friends with the likes of me…“

Quick as a flash, Benny got off the bed. Both Tenryu and Nia looked at him in shock. Though for obvious reasons he shouldn’t have as he had just awoken from a coma and naturally his legs were shaking like a newborn fawn.

“Benjamin, you shouldn’t get out of bed! You’ve just-”

But Benny ignored Nia and hobbled towards Tenryu, who stood frozen at where stood. The next thing the Swordsmage Benny grabbed Tenryu by the front of his shirt and glared at him with his remaining one eye. This strangely looks like the time Tenryu grabbed him like that.

“B-Benny?! Wha-”

“Tenryu…I will only say this once. I don’t blame you at all for what happened to me! So stop whining already!”

“But your eye…”

“So? What about it? It’s already happened so we can’t complain about it! I just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“But still…”

“I don’t know what happened with the others so I won’t say anything for that. But to me, I couldn’t care less what happened.”

“B-But…But I’m nothing but trouble-”

“Tenryu, I’m not breaking our friendship over something like this!” Benny lets go of Tenryu’s shirt and places both his hands on the guy’s shoulders. “So please, if you have a problem with your past mistakes just learn from them and move on. We all have to.”

“He’s right, Tenryu! Nobody blames you…for this incident at least. All the other times you just made mistakes that caused major problems for everyone.”

Tenryu and Benny had sweatdropped at her words.

“That still sounds rather harsh, Nia…”

Nia shrugged, “In the end, you never fully intended to harm anyone. And like what Benjamin had said, you have to learn from those mistakes of yours.”

“But this time, Benny got-”

“How many times do I have to tell you it wasn’t your fault I got this injury? If not, the fault is mine.”

“Again, he’s right. Benjamin just acted without thinking and got himself injured so don’t get yourself down as it’s pretty much his own fault.”

Benny felt his heart breaking, “Though I said it, coming from you that sounded like a backhanded insult in my end, Nia.”

“Benjamin, I’ll lay this out for the two of you. I really dislike the whole “I’ll sacrifice myself for you scenario.” If possible, I want all of us to make it out of a bad situation unscathed or at the very least not in the verge of death. Understand, Benjamin?”

Nia was releasing a “ticked off” Aura that scared Benny.

“Y-Yes…ma’am! I won’t do it again!”

Nia nodded as she turned to Tenryu, “So Tenryu, please… Will you cheer up already?”

Tenryu looked down with his hair bangs covered his eyes, “Benny…I…”

“BLISTERING BLAZES!!!” snaps Benny, feeling his patience had run out. “THAT’S ENOUGH WITH YOUR DAMN EXCUSES ALREADY!!!”

His sudden outburst caused Tenryu and Nia to stare at him in shock.

“Benjamin…Just now…did you just-”

Benny’s grip on Tenryu’s shoulders tightened.

“Tenryu…If all, I owe you all for everything. When you saved me my life at Marblewood Forest that day and even until now when you laid that final blow that defeated that Demon. To me... you’re the real hero.”

“H-Hero?”

“Yeah, you save me not once but many times already. You’re definitely the hero here.”

Tenryu looked up and Benny could see tears forming from the edge of his eyes. And the next thing he knew…Tenryu bawled his eyes out.

Okay, that was totally “un-hero”-like but Benny wasn’t going to say that now.

Instead, he pulled Tenryu into his arms and patted him in the back to calm him down like a father would to a child.

Immediately, he also saw that Tenryu’s Aura become bright red again.

Nia just looked at the scene with a smile, wiping a small tear.

But he seriously did not notice that, didn’t he? Nia added in a n amused afterthought.